Domaining - Fun Sidegig Or Viable Money Maker?

Hey everyone, I thought I'd drop a question here to promote a bit of discussion around how much potential lies in this area of our industry.

About a year and a half ago I was able to attend a local SEO conference in my city. There was a pretty nice variety of people doing presentations and sharing industry experience. I was lucky enough to speak to some people who'd been in business since the late 90s/early 2000s. Some of them owned hundreds/thousands of domains and were able to share their success stories over the years. (There was also stories of failures, normally involving lawsuits, lol.)

I noticed that they all had two things in common, though.

Number one was that they all got in early. Many of them were purchasing domains whilst the general public were still building up basic internet/computer literacy.

Number two was that they seemed to all have a preference for Geo Domaining. Combining this with their early adoption of domaining meant that some of them owned hundreds/thousands of domains related to key cities across the United Kingdom and the United States. Some of them, I believe, simply sold them off. Others used the domains as sort of content aggregators for local news and I believe would rent them out to local councils/bodies of government. Others, from what I can remember, used them to sell advertisements for local services.

I'm a little hazy on all of the specifics as this seminar isn't what I attended the conference for. But it peaked my interest and I'm wondering what peoples thoughts are.

My Question For You All:

How viable are these strategies going forward? Internet literacy is a basic fact of modern life now. Did I simply have a run in with some early-adopters who got lucky? If that's the case, what's the modern outlook on this aspect of the industry?

All of the premium domains have already been acquired. Now its not a profitable industry. My suggestion is not to waste your time and money.

I have a slightly different opinion. Real estate business will never die. There will be land to sell and there will be ready to sell constructed properties.

SIMILARLY, since domains are like fundamental to virtual real estate, they will always command their own business space.
Bottomline: DOMAINING IS PROFITABLE INDEED AND HERE TO STAY. As every business vertical requires knowledge and experience to succeed, so does domaining.

Blogsmith said:

I have a slightly different opinion. Real estate business will never die. There will be land to sell and there will be ready to sell constructed properties.

SIMILARLY, since domains are like fundamental to virtual real estate, they will always command their own business space.
Bottomline: DOMAINING IS PROFITABLE INDEED AND HERE TO STAY. As every business vertical requires knowledge and experience to succeed, so does domaining.

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what do you think of the strategies listed above? are they eternally viable or do modern domainers do something different?

Blogsmith said:

I have a slightly different opinion. Real estate business will never die. There will be land to sell and there will be ready to sell constructed properties.

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couldn't agree more.

Kamaitachi96 said:

How viable are these strategies going forward? Internet literacy is a basic fact of modern life now. Did I simply have a run in with some early-adopters who got lucky? If that's the case, what's the modern outlook on this aspect of the industry?

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I'd say highly viable, really. If you look at it from the perspective of true "liberation" if I might use that word when it comes to internet literacy and informational freedom, it's becomes even more apparent.